


Good Cop, Bad Cop

by vivvav



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Makoto Niijima Week, The AFR Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:49:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivvav/pseuds/vivvav
Summary: On his day off from work, Detective Sadao Niijima winds up teaching his three-year-old daughter Makoto a classic police trick.Written for Makoto Niijima Week. Day 4's prompt is "Past/Backstory".





	Good Cop, Bad Cop

**Author's Note:**

> Makoto Niijima Week marches on! We're halfway done now!  
> https://makotoniijimaweek.tumblr.com

** Art by [Hureno](http://hurenoshmureno.tumblr.com) **

 

* * *

 

Sadao Niijima’s crimson eyes opened slowly. He turned his head to the left to see the other half of the bed empty. Then he turned it to the right to see one of his favorite sights in the world: His vision unblurring just enough to make out “10:08 AM” on the clock on his nightstand. Having a Sunday off was rare in the detective’s life, which meant he got to sleep in and then spend the day with his lovely wife and two brilliant daughters. A lot of the other cops at the station expressed a strange pity for Sadao, saying what a nightmare it must be at home to be completely outnumbered by women. Sadao never understood where that kind of garbage rhetoric came from. A lot of his coworkers cheated on their wives, saying that they just didn’t understand the hardships of the job. Sadao supposed he was happier because he was of the opinion that one’s private life and one’s personal life should be two entirely separate things. No matter how much a case was driving him mad, he never brought that home. He didn’t get to spend a lot of time with his family as it was, and he didn’t want all of their memories of him to be bad ones when he was dead and gone. Which isn’t to say that he never vented his frustrations to Yuriko or explained details of his job to the girls, but Detective Sadao Niijima and Sadao the family man were two different entities who had their own places in the world.

Muscles aching from a long week of work, Sadao slowly rose from bed, trudging into the living room in his pajamas. There he saw Sae and Yuriko sitting on the couch, watching the news. His wife and oldest daughter practically looked like mirror images of each other, with similar facial features, long, flowing, light-brown hair, and serious, proper postures. The only two major differences were Sae’s red eyes and the height difference, though considering how abnormally tall Sae was for her age, Sadao felt like it would only be a few more years before the girl caught up to Yuriko’s height.

“G’mornin’” Sadao said groggily. He shambled over to behind the couch and bent over, kissing his wife and daughter on the cheeks.

“Good morning, Dad” Sae said.

“Did you sleep well?” Yuriko asked.

“Any time I get a full night’s sleep is ‘well’ by my definition.”

“I know what you mean” Sae said.

“No you don’t.” Sadao rustled Sae’s hair. “You’re nine. Quit acting like you’re a grown-up all the time. It only gets harder from here.”

“I’m not a little kid anymore!” Sae crossed her arms and pouted. “Little kids don’t read the newspaper!”

“And I’m guessing you’ve already read this morning’s, even though you’re not supposed to read the paper before I do, right?”

“You were asleep. It’s not like I was keeping it from you or anything.” Sae raised her thumb over her shoulder. “I left it on the table for you.”

“Can you believe the mouth on this girl, Yuriko?” Sadao laughed as he sauntered over to the dining table.

“She gets it from you, dear” Yuriko replied.

“I’m not so sure about that.” Sadao sat down at the table. “Say, where’s Makoto?”

“Take a guess” Sae said.

“Her room?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Right.” As Sadao picked up the newspaper, he realized he left something on the table when he came home last night that should have been where the paper was. “Did one of you move my badge?”

“No” Sae and Yuriko said in unison.

“Then where is it?”

“Take a guess” Sae said again.

“Right…” Sadao grumbled and rose to his feet, heading to Makoto’s room. Sure enough, as he approached the door to his youngest daughter’s play space, he could hear her tiny voice shouting about something. Sadao found Makoto an endless curiosity. The three-year-old was by no means an unintelligent child. When Makoto was engaged in a conversation, she spoke in clear, well thought-out sentences. But she didn’t speak very often. Makoto tended to be a very passive presence, going where she was told and silently watching everybody else go about their business, but once in a while she’d come alive, and when that happened she had a way of dominating the room.

“Don’t play games with me!” the voice on the other side of the door shouted.

Sadao gently turned the knob and opened the door just a crack, peeking inside. There was Makoto, wearing sunglasses and a blue shirt, interrogating her favorite stuffed animal from the other side of a plastic table. Sure enough, she had her father’s police badge in her hand.

“I know you weren’t repairing boats at the docks on Tuesday night, because we have security camera video evidence of you in the Diet Building that night!” Makoto slammed the badge on the table. “Do you think they gave me this badge for being ‘Liar-Believer Niijima’!? ‘Cuz they didn’t! My name is ‘Detective Niijima’, and I know you’re guilty!”

Makoto lowered her sunglasses to glare directly into the stuffed animal’s eyes. As reality would dictate, the bear/dog thing had no response.

“Stop pulling my leg, Buchi-Kun! Where is the Prime Minister’s wallet!?”

Sadao held in his laughter as he opened the door fully. This had hardly been the first time he’d caught Makoto playing police with his badge, but this was one of the more entertaining instances.

“Having some trouble?”

“Hi, Papa!” Makoto broke character and took off her sunglasses. She ran over to Sadao, hugging his leg.

“Hey there.” Sadao knelt down and returned the hug. “What’s going on in here?”

“Me and Buchimaru-Kun are playing detective!”

“I see…” Sadao pointed to his badge in Makoto’s hand. “And that’s why you took my badge? Even though you know you’re not supposed to?”

“But I can’t be a detective without a badge!” Makoto looked up at her father with big sad eyes.

“That goes for me too, you know.”

“I’m sorry…” Makoto looked down at her feet and held out the badge to her father.

“How about…” Sadao took Makoto’s free hand and clasped it around the badge. “I wait until after you’ve cracked this case?”

“Really!?” Makoto looked back up at Sadao excitedly.

“Yeah.” Sadao looked over to the stuffed animal at the table. “What’s the situation, Detective Niijima?”

“That’s Buchi-Kun.” Makoto put her sunglasses back on, returning to her hardboiled detective persona. “He stole the Prime Minister’s wallet and hid it, and now the chief wants me to get it back or he said it’s my heinie on the line!”

“And he’s not cracking, huh?”

“Nope.” Makoto kicked the ground. “I’m getting too old for this stuff!”

“How about we try ‘good cop bad cop’ on him?”

“What’s that?”

“Well, right now you’re being really mean and angry, and that works sometimes.” Sadao put his hand on Makoto’s shoulder. “But other times, you have to be nice to criminals to get them to tell you stuff. Make them think you’re their friend.”

“But I don’t wanna be friends with bad guys!”

“No, it’s like playing pretend. The good cop acts nice to the bad guy, and the bad cop acts mean to them, and between the two of them they come up with a way to make them confess.”

“So you want me to play pretend when I’m already playing pretend?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be good cop.” Sadao gave Makoto a thumbs up. “We’ll interrogate him together. You ready?”

Makoto nodded. Sadao coolly strode over to the table and sat on the floor.

“Hello… ‘Buchi-Kun’, was it?” Sadao extended his hand. “I’m Detective Niijima’s partner, Detective Niijima. Nice to meet you.”

Buchimaru did not shake Sadao’s hand, so he retracted it.

“Alright then. You’ve been here a long time, haven’t you, Buchi-Kun?” Sadao turned to Makoto. “Just how long have you been talking to this guy?”

“A million seconds.” Makoto bared her teeth. “A million long, lie-filled seconds.”

“Wow, a million seconds, huh?” Sadao looked back to Buchimaru. “That’s a long time to go without a nap. You must be tired, right? You want some coffee?”

Once again, silence.

“Psst.” Sadao whispered to Makoto, breaking character. “Is he saying anything?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I can’t hear it. Can you help me out?”

“Okay!” Makoto cupped her hands over her mouth and spoke in a deep voice.

“I don’t like coffee” ‘Buchimaru’ said.

“Then what do you want? Tea? Soda?”

“I want some candy!”

“Bad guys don’t get candy!” Makoto slammed her hands on the table. “Tell us where the wallet is or we’ll throw you in a dark jail cell where you’ll never eat anything but bell peppers again forever!”

“She’s got a point.” Sadao shook his head with an exaggerated frown. “The food in jail is pretty bad. You don’t get fun bentos made by your mom. You have to wait in line for gruel, and a lot of the time some bigger, meaner prisoner will steal your cookie.”

“That’s not very nice” Buchimaru said.

“You think that’s bad? Just wait!” Makoto leaned in over the table, getting in Buchimaru’s face. “If you don’t start cooperating, I’m gonna make sure your cellmate is the biggest, meanest, smelliest bad guy who never takes baths!”

“Of course, if you DO tell us what we wanna know, we might be willing to cut you a deal.” Sadao propped his elbow on the table, holding his head in his hand. “Stealing the Prime Minister’s wallet is a big job. I bet you didn’t do it all on your own. If you tell us who helped you and where it is now, we can probably get your a reduced sentence.”

“I can’t tattle on them” Buchimaru whined. “They’re my friends!”

“Well if we don’t solve this case, you’re going to jail, and then everyone will know you’re a bad guy, and nobody will ever wanna be your friend EVER!” Makoto put her hands on her hips. “It’s your choice, Buchimaru-Kun!”

“But I don’t wanna have no friends!” Buchimaru cried.

“Well, it doesn’t have to be that way” Sadao said. “All you have to do is tell us who helped you steal the wallet and where it is now, and you won’t be in trouble anymore.”

“It was Hello Kitty! She’s the mastermind! She told me to hide the wallet under the Tokyo Tower!” Buchimaru began making sobbing sounds. “I’m so-or-ry!”

“We did it!” Sadao held up his hand to Makoto. “We got his confession!”

“Yay!” Makoto high-fived her father. “We’re gonna get medals from the Prime Minister!”

“That’s all well and good, but right now there are only two things I want. Breakfast…” Sadao stood up, holding out his hand. “And my badge.”

“Here you go, Papa!” Makoto handed Sadao his badge. “Thanks for helping me solve the case!”

“Any time.” Sadao gently poked Makoto’s nose. “But not more taking my badge without asking, ok?”

“Ok!”

* * *

Sometime in the afternoon, Sadao had decided to go out for a walk. When he returned home, he found Yuriko outside Makoto’s door, spying on their daughter as he had been earlier.

“Anything good on?” Sadao asked jokingly. Yuriko shushed him, and he peeked inside.

“BANG! BANG!”

Makoto and Buchimaru were on one side of her bed, dolls of Hello Kitty and Pikachu propped up on the other side with socks covering their heads. Makoto was shooting at them with finger guns, ducking behind the bed for cover presumably when they fired back.

“GET DOWN, BUCHI-KUN!”

“Should we be concerned?” Yuriko whispered.

“Maybe” Sadao said. “Earlier, Buchi-Kun was a bad guy. Why is Makoto teamed up with him now?”

“Sadao!” Yuriko shoved her husband’s arm. “I’m serious! This is not the kind of game a little girl should be playing! It’s so violent!”

“Well I don’t know what to tell you.” Sadao leaned on the wall next to Makoto’s door. “I can’t exactly tell her that being a police officer is bad, can I? It’d be kind of hypocritical.”

“This is all because of your constant ‘fist of justice’ talk.”

“Well excuse me for taking pride in my work.”

“Don’t be like that!” Yuriko scowled at Sadao. “I’m not trying to make either of us the bad guy here. But you already know how much I worry about you every day. I can’t imagine our baby growing up to do what you do.”

“They’re out of ammo!” Makoto threw Buchimaru over to the other side of the bed. “Get ‘em, Officer Buchi-Kun!”

“I understand your concern, Yuriko, but it’s just a game.” Sadao could see that his words were not of comfort to the woman he loved. “Look, kids get into these phases. Remember when Sae was little and wanted to be an idol for half a year, then she completely changed interests and started talking about being a doctor? It’s probably like that.”

“And what if it’s not just a phase?” Yuriko watched Makoto at play fearfully. “What if she decides she wants to be a police officer, just like you and your father were? Is that what you want for her!?”

“Honestly? I don’t know how I’d feel. Of course, the idea of our little girl putting herself in danger terrifies me, but I’d be lying if I said I probably wouldn’t be a little proud too.” Sadao put his hands in his pockets. “Our girls are very smart and determined. Whatever Sae and Makoto decide they want to do, I'm not sure either of us could dissuade them if we wanted to.”

“You’re probably right.” Yuriko grabbed the sides of Sadao’s face and stared daggers into his eyes. “But if Makoto’s still talking about being a police officer in a few years, you are sitting down with her and having a VERY serious talk about the dangers of your job.”

“Of course, dear.” Sadao grinned nervously. Yuriko held her glare for a moment before walking away. Once she turned the corner, Sadao let out a huge sigh of relief. For somebody who was a Niijima in name only, Yuriko certainly had a death glare worthy of the family name. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is by far my favorite piece I've written this week, and it's all thanks to Hureno. I really had no idea how I wanted to tackle "little Makoto's interest in police work" until Hureno showed me the WIP cover for this one. After that, everything just clicked. This went from being the hardest day's work to write to the easiest.


End file.
